


But it is the Youth that Must Fight and Die

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Episode: s03e19 Sozin's Comet Part 2 The Old Masters, Ficlet, Gen, Guilt, Introspection, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 10:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10762515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: They are all children, and none of it is fair.Iroh, on the morning of Sozin's Comet.





	But it is the Youth that Must Fight and Die

**Author's Note:**

> Title from a quote from Herbert Hoover.

“Unquestionable _honor_?” His nephew’s eyes widen in disbelief, as if, after everything, he still can’t believe his own worth. “But I’ve made so many mistakes!”

 _Of course you have_ , thinks Iroh. _You are sixteen years old. When I was sixteen, I lounged around Court reading poetry and sparring. When Lu Ten was sixteen, he laid in the orchard and pined for romance. But living as a child, as a teenager, growing and making mistakes...these are luxuries you’ve never had._

 _And for the sake of us all, you have to take this burdensome crown._ Iroh sighs and tries to hide it. “Only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation.”

Zuko nods, mutters something about trying. (He always tries, has tried so hard for as long as Iroh’s known him, and hasn’t that been part of the tragedy of it all along?) He is a child.

They are all children. The first time Iroh had seen the Avatar, when Zuko had—miraculously, it had seemed—dragged him back to the ship from the South Pole, Iroh had nearly keeled over, had wanted to fall to his knees and weep, right there on the deck in front of all of the crew. The Avatar was a boy—Agni, the Avatar was younger than Zuko had been when Ozai marked him and sent him away to die…And this child, who had already lost his entire race, would have to stand alone before Ozai and the Fire Nation, would have to end the War…Agni, a _child_ …

He looks around the circle. They are all children: the Earthbender he had met in the hills, so determined that she could take care of herself; the Waterbender from the South Pole, whose village had been invaded too many times, who left home to help the Avatar; her brother, desperate and forced to be a warrior; the teenage general from Kyoshi Island. They are all children, and none of it is fair.

But he sends them off to war anyway, because he is somehow still a General, and this is an old man’s war but these children are the only hope they have of ending it. 

_I am sorry,_ he wants to say to all of them. _I am so sorry._ He wants to get on his knees and beg forgiveness from each of them for what he is asking them all to do, for what this war—his family’s war, and in some ways, _his_ war—has already turned them into. Maybe he will, when this is all over.

(If they are still alive, when this is all over. “Today, destiny is our friend, I know it,” he says. But he doesn’t know at all. And he can’t help asking himself when destiny has ever been kind to these children.)

“I am sorry,” he says once more, this time out loud, once they’re gone. He thinks of Lu Ten and repeats himself. “I am so sorry."

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I live for comments!


End file.
